Helicobacter pylori is a microaerophilic Gram-negative bacterium, which colonizes the gastric mucosa of humans (10). H. pylori is associated with gastritis and peptic ulcer disease and has been shown to increase the risk of gastric cancers. Urease is a major virulence factor of H. pylori. It is involved in neutralizing the acidic microenvironment of the bacterium and also plays a role in H. pylori metabolism (11, 26).
The urease region of the H. pylori genome is composed of two gene clusters common to all strains (9 and FIG. 1), one comprising the ureAB genes encoding the structural urease subunits and the other containing the ureEFGH genes encoding the accessory proteins required for nickel incorporation into the urease active site. The ureI gene lies immediately upstream from this latter gene cluster and is transcribed in the same direction (FIG. 1). The ureA, ureB, ureE, ureF, ureG, ureH, and ureI genes and gene products have been described and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,695,931 and allowed patent application Ser. No. 08/472,285, both of which are specifically incorporated herein by reference.
The distances separating ureI from ureE (one base pair, bp) and ureE from ureF (11 bp) suggest that ureI-ureE-ureF constitute an operon. Cotranscription of ureI and ureE has been demonstrated by northern blot analysis (1). An H. pylori N6 mutant with a ureI gene disrupted by a MiniTn3-Km transposon was previously described by Ferrero et al. (1994) (13). This strain (N6-ureI::TnKm-8) presented a urease negative phenotype, so it was concluded that ureI was an accessory gene required for full urease activity.
The sequences of UreI from H. pylori and the AmiS proteins, encoded by the aliphatic amidase operons of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Rhodococcus sp. R312, are similar (5, 27). Aliphatic amidases catalyze the intracellular hydrolysis of short-chain aliphatic amides to produce the corresponding organic acid and ammonia. It has been shown that H. pylori also has such an aliphatic amidase, which hydrolyzes acetamide and propionamide in vitro (23).
In view of the sequence similarity between UreI and AmiS together with the very similar structures of the urease and amidase substrates (urea: NH.sub.2 --CO--NH.sub.2 and acetamide: CH.sub.3 --CO--NH.sub.2) and the production of ammonia by both enzymes, a better understanding of the function of the H. pylori UreI protein is required. This understanding will open new opportunities for the prevention and treatment of H. pylori infections.